Spin Hall and Edelstein Effects in Metallic Films

J.Borgea, C. Gorini b, G. Vignale c and R. Raimondi a aDipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, Rome, Italy bService de Physique de l'État Condensé, CNRS URA 2464, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France cDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia MO 65211, USA

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In an insulator-metal-insulator junction, inversion-symmetry breaking at the interfaces between the 3D metallic film and the top and bottom insulating layers may give rise to a sizeable (Rashba-like) spin-orbit interaction. In this paper we study the spin Hall and Edelstein effects produced by such an interface interaction through a quasiclassical approach. We find that the spin Hall conductivity has a finite value even if spin-orbit interaction with impurities in the bulk of the metallic film is neglected and disorder is properly taken into account. This is in sharp contrast with the case of a strictly 2D metallic layer, in which case impurity scattering is known to completely suppress Rashba-like contributions to the spin Hall conductivity. The non-vanishing of the latter has a profound influence on the Edelstein effect, which we show to consist of two terms, the first with the standard form: valid in an exactly 2D system, and a second arising from the presence of the third dimension.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.127.457 PACS numbers: 72.25.Mk, 75.70.Tj, 85.75.-d